Action Camera Market Booming, 9M Sales By 2018

Action cameras, which are already a hot category in Australia are set to boom further with shipments of nearly 5M units in 2013 set to grow to 9M units by 2018 according to new research.

The market for action cameras has certainly been increasingly active over the past few years, as market leader GoPro carves out dominant market share - despite a cluster of competitors.

The forecast is revealed in the latest research report from consulting firm Futuresource, which notes that while sales of action cameras grew 47% year-on-year in 2013, plenty more growth is still to come.

Arun Gill, a Futuresource market analyst, said that: "The USA and UK shared 46% of worldwide demand last year, a drop of 4% share from the previous year, due to stronger growth in other regions.

"The relative importance of outdoor pursuits, propensity to spend on emerging CE categories and the use of social media are some of the main drivers of demand for action cameras", continued Mr Gill.

Last year, most action camera sales were made by prosumers such as sports enthusiasts in much more lifestyle than CE-centric pursuits, while the rest of the sales most went to professional applications, with TV production given as the predominant example.

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A Sony head-mounted action camera

Mr Gill explained that: "The distribution of action cameras is uniquely lifestyle-centric as opposed to CE-centric, with retailers focused around surfing, skiing, cycling, etc., and generally independent or small chains, as opposed to large chains."

Although GoPro is the undisputed market leader, Futuresource reports a "growing number of vendors vying for market share", which include companies such as Sony, Contour, Garmin and others.

By 2018, Futuresource expects the majority of growth in action camera sales to come from parts of Europe and the Asia Pacific region.